School Address

Here is Kyle's school address below.  Feel free to send packages to this address, as for letters and regular sized mail those can get sent to our apartment, but we still need to transfer that address onto the computer.  :(  We think having the Korean address versus the translated one is better so that the Korean mailman knows where to send our stuff.  From what I've read online, as long as it says South Korea on the package in English it should be fine to leave the US, but we'll post the translation so you can use both.  


South Korea  경기도  고양시  일산서구  대화동  868-1  번지  대화이튼키즈학교  Kyle Benson

South Korea  Gyeonggi-do  Goyang-si  Ilsandong-gu  Daehwadong  868-1  Beonji  Daehwa  Eton  Kids  School  Kyle Benson


Quick update about our weekend:  We went into Seoul on Saturday and wandered around Hongik University where a bunch of college art students set up a market to sell their crafts.  We found some pretty sweet items and will definitely be returning after receiving our first pay check.  :)  We then walked from that market to the electronic goods market which was a few miles over and were overwhelmed by the 200 different stores selling electronics.  We then wandered around some more and ended up at I'Park Mall (so big it has it's own metro line inside the mall).  Since the mall is so massive I couldn't take a picture of the whole thing, and there don't seem to be any good bird's eye view of it, so this is the best I can do.

We wandered around the mall, found a late lunch, and then headed back home around 5:30 since we were exhausted.  We are finally all caught up on Lost (for Lost fans reading this).  Last 2 episodes, so good!  We spent Sunday cleaning, doing laundry, and just relaxing.  Overall, good weekend.  


Next weekend we are going to Jinhae (South East) near Busan with our recruiter for the cherry blossom festival.  Hopefully the cherry trees have started to blossom since it's still pretty cold up here and nothing has started to bloom yet.  :(  Pollution is still making us feel crappy and I'll be happy when I finally have my voice back to normal (I either don't have a voice or I sound like a 12 year old boy.  I just can't win!)  :(  We get our registration cards on Tuesday and then have to set up a bank account, and THEN we get our cell phones and internet.  We'll definitely let you know when we have reliable internet.  It's bed time now since we have to be up early.  


Miss you and love you all!  K & M

Seoul, Pollution, and I don’t want your Jesus

This past week, Monica and I have been a little under the weather. Originally, we thought we had caught a cold or something from the people on the flight over or the kids. We later learned that our symptoms were from something more sinister and harder to cure than just taking some Nyquil and Advil. Korea has just gotten on the “Go Green” bandwagon. As far as we can tell, all green means is sorting your garbage into a white or green bag depending on its organic qualities. That being said, there is a pre-existing pollution issue in and around the Seoul area similar to the smog in NYC. The worst of it comes from our happy neighbors to the North East, China. Due to massive deforestation and regulation free factories they have caused an air pollution crisis that effects the entire world, you may recall the issues of the 2008 summer Beijing olympics related to the air quality of China. During the windy season of Korea, which is right now, China’s pollution gets blown our way. The foreigners call it “Yellow Dust” which is pretty much what it is. The yellow dust is a sand storm created by deforestation mixed with air pollution. Monica was complaining about a constant runny nose, sore throat, and cough to her coworkers and they informed her that those are the symptoms from the pollution. This did answer one of our questions about Asian people, “why are they always wearing face masks?” Well, it’s not to imitate Michael Jackson. They sell a variety of different masks to safeguard against inhaling to much of the bad air. I was also hit with this pollution disease and I was left without a voice for 3 days. Most of my kids don’t understand me when I talk normally, and I’m pretty sure I made my 2 year old class cry with my raspy rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider. We are recovering now and getting used to the air, but until we do, we bought some sporty face masks to get us through the worst of it which has yet to come, we’ll show you pictures of the yellow sky when we get them.

We recently made some new friends and went into Seoul with them for a little R&R. We took a 20 minute taxi into the city, which beats a 45 minute subway ride, and arrived in Hyundai. This is a small area with a great nightlife and lots of restaurants, clubs, and bars. We found a pub and got some drinks and food. I never thought I would eat cheese fries with chopsticks. They also ordered a “Soju Cocktail” which is probably the most dangerous drink in the world. It was absolutely delicious, but combined with Soju’s ability to sneak up on you it could be disastrous in large quantities, we only got 1 pitcher for 8 people so we were safe. We got our groove on and found some good bars. Eventually we made it back to Ilsan and spent the rest of the night at BarBoom, which is where one of our friends works and got us VIP access. Our first night of Korean partying was a great success and we are looking forward to more in the future.

Since Catholicism was brought over by the missionaries it has slowly become the largest religion in Korea, followed by Buddhism. We all know the Jajova’s Witness and Mormon door to door peddling their religion. During our first weekend we were woken up by our doorbell at 8am. We have a security camera attached to our doorbell and I saw an old tiny Korean woman smiling at me. Thinking it might be the owner of the building or someone from the school I opened the door. They gibbered something in Korean, but I distinctly heard them say Jesus. Within the first week I had gotten the confused foreigner look down and I said “I don’t speak Korean, sorry,” and I went to close the door, but they were tricky. A younger woman who was there as well quickly responded with some broken English and told me about their church and that Jesus’ birthday was coming, and handed me a pamphlet, which was entirely in Korean. A few days later, Monica and I were walking through the subway when we walked through a crowd of well dressed business men with brief cases. They quickly surrounded us and we gave our best “I don’t understand look.” Once again they were tricky and one of them spoke some English. He said we looked very busy, but if we could wait a minute he would like to tell us all about an important man who came back to life and his name was Jesus. He handed us a pamphlet, which happened to be the same one I was given by the old lady, and the circle of business men parted and we hastily walked to the exit.

That's all our adventures this week. Thanks for reading and if you know how, please follow us on blogger.com so we know who is reading.

Miss you! Love, K and M

Disappointing Meals, Satisfying Meals, Making New Friends, Stumbling Upon Something Unplanned & Enjoying It Anyway, Baby-steps In Seoul

Since arriving in Korea we haven't had the best eating schedule, so when we go out for food we are so hungry that nothing looks good enough. Korean food typically doesn't smell or look good, except bakeries (we'll get to that later), but in Kyle's opinion, tastes great. Monica is too picky of an eater and even though she hasn't complained too much while eating, finding food is always an argument. One night, around 8:30 we decided to hunt for food near our apartment (since we had walked over 2.5 miles in search of food the night before) and Kyle found a place called "Miso Food." It looked okay to eat, but was less than satisfying, consisting of a mystery substance that looked like boiled dough on a stick and a very spicy red dish with small rice cakes that are very similar to gnocchi (M: But NOT nearly as good, please, the Italians know how to make a real meal). Monica was not happy and complained the whole meal while Kyle ate it because it was food and he was hungry. Needless to say we won't be going back….

The story about our 2.5 mile quest for food. Once again we waited until we were starving until we went out to hunt for our next meal. We found a place and said if we didn't find anything that looked better we would head back. We kept walking and found another place and said that if nothing else looked better we would head back. We walked some more and found another place and said if nothing looked better we would head back. Notice a pattern? Nothing looks good, but taste is another story and Monica just needs to suck it up and eat, but we'll save that argument for later. Eventually we made it to La Festa, which is a huge outdoor mall with lots of shopping, restaurants, street vendors, and bars. Monica insisted all the good food was on the second floor so that’s where we looked. We found out a few days later that all the good food is at one end of La Festa, and that we hadn’t walked far enough to get to it. Eventually we found a place that Monica said, "This place looks cute." So we went in. This was our first sit down meal without someone to translate for us. A lot of Korean sit down restaurants have a gas stove on the table where they bring you lots of side dishes and then your soup or meat is cooked in front of you. We said to the waiter "Beef, beef" and she pointed and said "Beef" and we replied "OK." We found out later that we had shabu shabu, which you can get at Japanese restaurants in the states. It’s basically a bowl of soup, which is boiling hot at your table and you put raw meat, vegetables, and noodles in the broth and it cooks in the soup. It was delicious! Monica even enjoyed the mild wasabi sauce that we were given to dip the meat into.
La Festa at Night:

The Scottish ladies who live on our floor invited us out to a bar and we decided we should expand our social network. We went to the bar and they weren't there, so we sadly walked back to our apartment in hopes something else would come up, chances were slim since we still don't have phones. Luck was on our side and as we got to our floor we ran into Jordan, who was going to a bar with Monica's coworker, Mike, and we were invited so we told him that we would accompany him there. The bar was in the cellar of an Italian restaurant and was called Sunny's , coincidentally the name of the guy who owned it. It was mostly a foreigner hang out and most of the patrons were so regular that they could just walk behind the bar to pour their own drinks. We chatted and had a good time but it was very clear that this was a crowd that was a bit older by 10-20 years. We heard the same foreigner banter that we’ve heard everywhere, which was mostly "What did your school do to screw you over this week?" We may meet up at Sunny's again, but I think we will try to find a younger crowd in the future.

Saturday, we wanted to do some sightseeing, and with a suggestion from Tim, we found our destination to be Gyeonbokgung, about 16 subway stops away. When Tim mentioned this he thought it was a temple, but the subway stop read Gyeonbokgung Palace. After debating what direction we should head in after getting off of the subway, we eventually came across a very large stonewall. Upon finding the entrance, we were greeted with the sound of drumming and what seemed to be bagpipes from far away. We ran to the sound and found that it was a reenactment of the Changing of the Guard in the reconstructed palace. We wandered around the palace for a few hours and Kyle found every nook and cranny he could while Monica protested that we shouldn't be there. We both agreed that the palace ground would have been 20x better in the spring and summer when things are green and that we would go back then. Admission on the ground was only w3,000 (=$3) per person so it will be worth it to revisit.



After the temple we decided to find food. We found ourselves in a HUGE square with a giant gold statue of some ancient emperor pointing off into the distance. After some walking we sat down and Kyle came to the realization that we were indeed in Seoul. Upon realizing we were in one of the top 10 cities in the world we decided to wander around some more. We wandered the streets and poked our heads in and out of food eateries. Monica had a knack for finding the most expensive meals in the area. It seemed to be coffee time and everyone was in a cafe and the restaurants were barren. Kyle wanted to wait an hour, until 6, so the restaurants would open for business to get dinner. Monica decided that she needed to eat at 5:50. What did we eat? Not delicious Korean food from one of the hundreds of restaurants that we passed. We had pizza. Korean pizza isn't bad, it's not NYC pizza, but aside from the corn it's better than California pizza. However, if you are in one of the top 10 cities in the world for the first time and there are restaurants in every direction that offer delicious cuisine, as long as you are brave enough to point to a menu and pray it's not dog or cat, pizza shouldn't be on your mind. Alas, that is what we had, much to Kyle's disappointment; it was eaten on a crowded subway back home. (Note from the editor: We will undoubtedly return to Seoul several times throughout the next year and I’m sure we will find somewhere Korean to eat on one, if not all, of those journeys. Plus, it took the pizza man at least 20 minutes to make our pizza, so you can change that 5:50 to 5:30. =P ).

Quick update:
Kyle used google translate to write down "power converter for PS3." Let's hope this one doesn't blow up too. It's been holding up pretty well so far.

Korean kid's say the darndest things:
Every Monday at Kyle's school they have a little gathering of all the kids for some weekly announcements and a few kids write in English about their weekend and present it in front of everyone. One adorable boy, Leo, had his turn today. This is what he wrote and said to everyone "Dad had a baby throw up in his mouth, then a dog bit his penise." No that wasn't a typo that’s how he spelled it, but he said it clear enough. We found out after that he was talking about a Korean show similar to America's Funniest Home Videos. Thanks for sharing Leo.

Side Notes from the Editor (M):
I spent over an hour trying to decode what the options on our laundry machine translated to. I was successful, and no clothes were ruined in the washing process. Since we’re too cheap to buy a $40 drying rack, we put the railing on the loft to use, and let the heated floor dry socks and underwear (worked quite well actually).

After only a week of teaching I have already gotten sick. Boo! Yay snotty nosed kids who cough on you and touch you with their dirty hands. *Shudder* (I think I’m becoming a germ-a-phobe.
We should be going to the Immigration Office tomorrow, if Mrs. Kwon remembers, which means cell phones, bank accounts, and reliable internet are on their way. Yay!
Address still to come. Packages cannot be sent to our apartment (our mailbox isn’t big enough and it’s out in the open) so Kyle is going to ask his Director for his school’s address and packages can be mailed there.

Miss you all!

Love K & M

Shopping, Power, X-rays, and Safety

Monica and I decided that our fridge was a bit empty this week and we should get some food shopping done. Our first mistake was going on a Sunday, it seems that every Korean in the city goes shopping on Sundays. Shopping for food in Korea is an experience and a meal. On the end of just about every isle is a girl in a short skirt cooking a particular brand of food for you to try and they will call out to you and get you to try their product. In the cleaning isle, there are women pushing for you to buy their brand of soap/detergent. Monica and I were bargain shopping and we found a cheap bottle of detergent, but we were accosted by a women trying to sell her brand, which was more expensive, and we had to flee from the area empty-handed. Now we desperately need to do laundry. Monica went on a quest to find pasteurized milk, which she was able to find only after writing down the Korean word for it on a notepad that she showed around to anyone who would help her. We also found peanut butter, but we were disappointed to discover that it was w7,000 (=$7) for a small jar of Skippy. An amazing thing about buying Korean alcohol is the difference between beer and liquor prices. The price of beer is more expensive than the price of Korean liquors. A bottle of Soju, which is a 20.5% alc/vol liquor similar to rice wine and the national drink, that can be found in 99% of the restaurants, is about w1,000 (=$1) per bottle. Korean beer is cheap, but as far as we have found it is not sold in bottles less than 40oz. Imported beers, such as Heinekin, can be up to 15,000 (=$15) for a six pack. A good thing about Soju is that it mixes well with just about anything. Monica has taken a liking to Cass which is the equivalent to Budweiser, while I am finding out the best ways to drink Soju. I also plan on learning more about the Korean drinking culture which occurs 24/7 and it is common to see business men having a liquid lunch.

I have also been on a quest to find a proper converter for my Playstation 3, which I brought with me, much to Monica's dismay. Monica brought a step down power converter with her, but 3 blown fuses later I decided I needed to find a new one. So on our trip to the Lottemart (similar to Walmart) I found a converter that looked right and had the proper power conversion written on it. I plugged it in and everything went fine, for a little while. The PS3 turned on and I was excited that we could now rent movies and play some games in our down time, but disaster was looming. We were chatting for the first time with my parents when we heard a pop. Panicked, I turned around and saw the power converter smoking and sparks were flying. After some very speedy unplugging, the converter remained hot to the touch for about an hour after, and I am still looking for a new power source… to be continued.

After getting to the country, Monica and I have 90 days to register with the Immigration Office. Once we do this, we can then get cell phones, a bank account, and other things that require monthly payments and such. In order to do so we needed to get some tests done at the hospital because Koreans are paranoid about foreign disease. Off we went Tuesday morning to go to the hospital, where we pointed at a piece of paper Monica had received on her passport from the LA Consulate which mentioned something about our tests. We were directed to the clinic where someone spoke limited English and we had our blood drawn, blood pressure taken, eyesight tested, urine tested, and a chest x-ray. I am still a bit unsure about the x-ray as I don't usually enjoy being needlessly dosed with radiation. The tests went smoothly even though we couldn't understand 90% of what was being told to us.

We also needed to get a better lock on our apartment because we couldn't lock our deadbolt from the outside. We went to the Lottemart and found the locksmith, these stores usually carry everything you could ever need in one place. Not only can you buy your food in the supermarket, but also pet lizards, laundry services, and so much more. The locksmith had a wide range of key pad locks from pads that have screens like an iPhone to cheap and simple button codes. We went with the latter. The problem arose when trying to communicate where we lived and how we were going to get there because the lock guy needed to come install our new lock. Monica and I made the question of "where" difficult because we didn't actually know where we lived or the name of our building. (We know where we live, don't get me wrong, we just need to physically show you). We understood that the locksmith told us he would drive us, but we didn't understand much more than that and the price of the lock, but we did find a way to tell him we would come back the next day in the evening. Jordan was kind enough to come with us and help with the communication aspect of our transaction. If Koreans do one thing right at all, it's service. You order food and you have it within minutes. We got a lock and it was installed right away. The locksmith also found that the door knob of our apartment could get stuck and strand us within the apartment, which he demonstrated. Fortunately, that had not happened to us yet, or we would have been stranded in our apartment, with limited food supplies, waiting for Jordan to eventually come looking for us. Luckily the lock guy had a new door knob in his car and in 10 minutes he was finished switching them out. Now Monica and I can feel safe when we leave our valuables at the apartment, whether it be for the day or overnight trips throughout the country.

That's all that's new with us. Love, Kyle

Our apartment and Lake Park

Last night we passed out at 7:30pm and slept until 7am.  Feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep, we decided it was time to cleanse our apartment from the filth of the previous owner, who was quite the shedder.  (We found her hair everywhere, even in the freezer).  GROSS!  We bleached the entire bathroom, kitchen, and fridge, and swept the floor.  Then Mrs. Kwon stopped by and dropped off our TV, some dishes, and she brought us 2 bags of apples.  She also had a maintenance guy come up and fix our heat.  The valve, located under the sink (who knew?), was turned off, so now we have heat.  Yay!  Then she gave us W 50,000 (=$50) so that we could go out to lunch and thank Jordan for all of his help.  
This is our clean apartment:

We ended up at this Chinese restaurant for lunch.  We looked through the menu and Kyle noticed that they had pictures of full prawns (head included) and mentioned that he wanted to try them.  We were able to find a 6 course meal that consisted of the dish.  The meal was W45,000 ($45) and had about 6 courses which for 4 people was plenty.  Jordan spoke with the waitress and ordered, but the waitress was unsure of what he was saying and instead of 1 meal for W45,000 we got 1 meal each.  Jordan of course felt bad for the miscommunication and how much lunch cost, but we forgave him because if he wasn't there we might have been eating monkey brains.  The meal was not the chinese food you get in the states though.  Jordan did his best to inform us about what we were eating: jelly fish, sea slug (Monica's face was priceless), squid, octopus, shark fin soup (Kyle feels guilty about that), and of course a fried prawn complete with head (Kyle and Jordan ate the whole thing).  Apart from the accidental cost and the uncomfortably full feeling, the meal was delicious, but something tells me we won't be going back anytime soon.
Eating  jellyfish (I was so adventurous with my food today!):

We also encountered a truly Asian experience as was were walking to the park.  We have all seen the American teenager go gaga over seeing Hannah Montana.  We found the Korean equivalent as we walked by a large TV broadcasting station.  Hundreds of Korean teenage girls and boys in school uniforms flocked outside the building awaiting a glimpse of their favorite celebrity.  They held signs and screamed as each car came out.  They chased the cars down the street and surrounded them at the stoplight and went as far as running through a busy intersection.  Their screams could be heard blocks away.  It was a truly unique sight.


After lunch, we decided to walk off all of the food we ate and we walked around Lake Park, which is the largest man-made lake in Korea.  We had visited the park earlier and saw the pagoda (below), we made this our first destination.  There was plenty of unusual art to be seen, mostly modern sculpture.  One sculpture that caught our eye was of 5 monks in praying position towards a TV set.  Kyle and Jordan were eager to join the monks in prayer to their favorite deity.  The park held a few other oddities: a barefoot walking path that was paved with different cobblestones and obstacles meant to massage your feet, a large hill with crude stone steps and a strange statue, a musical fountain, and some caged pheasants and chickens.  We also ran into one of Monica's coworkers, Mike, who joined us for the last leg of our walk around the lake.  At the park:

  

Now off to find a Korean equivalent of a birthday cake, even though we're still pretty full from lunch.  Midnight snack?


Love, K & M

First few days in Korea.

Kyle's karma has finally turned around.  He is at the Daehwa school, which has an organized director who seems to care about his school, and is about a 15 minute walk from our apartment.  I, on the other hand, am teaching at the Baekseok school (which is 5 subway stops away = 30 minute subway ride), which is run by a different lady (although she owns both schools and another), however she doesn't seem to be too organized, enjoys avoiding her foreign teachers, and doesn't speak a whole lot of English.  There is a Canadian guy, Jordan, who lives in our building and works at Kyle's school.  He's been very helpful in showing us around.  I have made friends with two guys, Mike and Tim, who work at my school and are very nice and seem eager to show Kyle and I around also.  All of these guys have been here for at least a year if not 2, so they are quite helpful, especially when it comes to speaking Korean.


Kyle and I are having very different experiences with our school.  His school really cares about what you are teaching, whereas mine doesn't really seem to mind.  I foresee lots of games in my future....  The kids are very similar to American kids.  You have the few who want to learn and the few who don't want to be there so they will try anything to make you pull your hair out.  Some of the kids are just adorable.  (There's a little 3 year old girl who looks like Jenny Merritt, if only Jenny were Asian).  I got to give the 3 year olds American names.  I, of course blanked on all American names known to me, so Congratulations family members!!!  There's a small Korean child named after you!  (Hopefully it's one of the well behaved ones, or we're in trouble).  Also, the name Jenny wasn't given to the little girl who looks like Jenny.   =(

As for our apartment, the Korean way seems to be to move out and not clean your apartment, so we will be cleaning that this weekend.  Heat is really bizarre here, the floor is where the heat is, but that doesn't really work when heating the entire apartment, especially our loft.  So our first purchase was a comforter.  


Food hasn't been as scary as I thought it was going to be.  I'm slowly, but surely building up my spicy tolerance!  Yay!  There's a Dunkin' Donuts across the street from our apartment, so we've been eating there for breakfast.  Not ready to face kimchi at every meal of the day yet, but kimchi soup is quite delicious.  We had Korean BBQ for dinner, so good!  Here is a picture of all the food you get (Korean portions are HUGE)!

I have no idea what we're doing for my birthday, but hopefully something fun.  We've been invited out, but we're still adjusting to the time change, so we'll see.  I turned into a pumpkin at 10pm last night!!!  Maybe we'll just spend the weekend getting adjusted to Ilsan and finding our way around.  


Miss you all!  Love, Monica